


Cupid Got A Little Overenthusiastic

by Ironic_Bookshop



Series: Stardew Gang [3]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Marriage, cute as hell, look I'm just sappy and want my babies to be happy okay, relationships, shane deserves better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29244801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ironic_Bookshop/pseuds/Ironic_Bookshop
Summary: You've heard of Four Weddings and A Funeral, but this is more like... three weddings, idiots and no funerals.We've got proposals, friends kinda setting each other up, and then the actual established couple being so slow to move past any actual milestones. I just wanted to write something cute, and sweet, and without any angst, so here. Have it.
Relationships: Alex/Haley (Stardew Valley), Lewis/Marnie (Stardew Valley), Shane/Female Player (Stardew Valley)
Series: Stardew Gang [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140623
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. More Coffee Than Blood At This Point

Shane woke up to find the bed empty.

  
Once he would have expected that. Then, slightly later in his life, he would have found it unnerving - always questioning that the other occupant of it had run away from him. Now he expected it once more, but knew where he’d find the other occupant.  
She’d be outside, watering crops, or in the chicken coop and feeding the creature she affectionately called ‘That MotherFucker’. She’d be yawning, probably stretching something like a shoulder or her neck, coffee in her free hand. When Shane got out of bed and wandered to find her, he knew he’d be met with a sleepy smile, eyes that sparkled and a content sounding ‘Good Morning, sleepyhead.’

Or, if it was raining, he was more likely to be met with a grouchy looking human, cradling the coffee and hiding under shelter somewhere, debating whether or not to go feed the other animals. If Shane appeared at the doorway then, he’d be greeted with ‘Go back inside, dumbass’, but it would still make him smile. And he knew that if he ran over to her, splashing mud up his bare legs, then she would smile despite herself, tell him he was stupid, and kiss him. And those kisses were worth getting drenched for.

* * *

The sun was shining, the late summer morning already feeling warm to the touch. Lucie rested against the fence, half-heartedly watering crops by angling the hose as high as she could so that she didn’t need to move from the fence. As expected, there was an empty mug in her hand, the warmth of the coffee lingering in the ceramic. She hadn’t noticed Shane move up behind her, so when the hand touched the space between her shoulder blades, she flinched slightly, wheeling around. Shane could see her eyes shift from startled to recognition, the pupils widening, then, just as quickly returning to normal. She smiled at him, settling back down to rest against the fence.

“Morning, Sleepyhead,” she said, as if on cue. Shane smiled back and kissed her lightly on the cheek in response.

“Morning,” he glanced down at the hose that was pummelling away at the earth by Lucie’s feet. “Another coffee?” The offer wasn’t entirely selfless. Lucie’s brain didn’t work properly this early in the morning, and whilst it was sweet, it also meant she was very annoying. When she was tired, she forgot the English words for things and would mutter in French until it came back to her - or worse, trying to describe the object that she wanted and get irritated when Shane didn’t know what she meant. Although, given the number of times that she stared at a wall when writing a letter to her father, it seemed she forgot the French words just as frequently.

So, Shane went to go make his girlfriend her second coffee of the day, before the hour hand on the clock had started to gaze at the number seven. He remembered a time when he wouldn’t get out of bed before seven if he’d been paid to do so - and if he didn’t have to go to work then he wouldn’t leave his bed before ten at the earliest. Yet, here he was, voluntarily up before seven in order to make Lucie coffee. Times had changed so quickly, without him even realising it.

He made coffee for himself as well, then headed back out on to the farm.

* * *

He’d never get bored of seeing that smile grace Lucie’s face whenever she caught sight of him.

* * *

The early morning slowly blurred into noon, the sun rising ever higher and ever warmer. It was a glorious day, and Lucie was in an excellent mood. She was just tired. So, she stopped to say hi to Gus and ordered a coffee on her way to ask Clint to break open some geodes. Then, after donating several of the unfamiliar stones to Gunther in the archaeology centre, helpfully right next to the blacksmiths. There were a good half dozen new artefacts donated that day, so Lucie thought that deserved a reward of more coffee.

* * *

  
When Haley invited her in for a coffee, how could Lucie refuse? After all, she’d barely seen Haley the past couple of weeks, as her and Alex had been having a minor spat about who was going to move in with who. They’d worked out that they wanted to live together, but the issue arose of whether Emily would be willing to have two people to generate more mess in her house, or if Haley could put up with Alex’s grandparents for more than a week. Lucie hadn’t spoken to either of them about this argument, she’d merely overheard it. She was pretty sure people in Zuzu City had overheard that argument.

* * *

The coffee mug was pressed into her hands faster than Lucie expected it to be. Haley having chattered nonsensically about cleaning and Emily and life as she brewed it. Lucie hadn’t taken in a single word of it. She doubted that she’d missed much.

“-and then Alex,” Lucie’s ears pricked up, “came in ranting about how unreasonable I was being, not moving in with him, and so I was just like-“

“Wait,” Lucie cut in, shuffling on the couch to face Haley more directly. “Are you saying that you’ve actually come up with a solution to the moving-in-problem?”

Haley gave Lucie a look which so clearly said ‘well if you’d shut up, you’d hear the answer to your question’. Lucie merely grinned at her and took a sip of coffee, using the liquid to stop her from saying anything more.

“As I was saying,” Haley arched an eyebrow as she spoke, drawling her words as only Haley could, “I told Alex that his grandparents would probably refuse to let us move into together before marriage anyway, given how much they whined about you and Shane moving in together so quickly.”

Lucie frowned. Evelyn had been a little off with her last year, it was true. George had barely been any different - or maybe she just decided he hadn’t because he was normally so grouchy anyway.

“What do you mean ‘so quickly’?” Lucie demanded, the phrase finally sticking in her brain. “We dated for like a year before we moved in together - I’ve known people marry faster.”

Haley’s eyebrow tried to escape into her hairline, it had risen so high up her forehead. She reached over and pressed a hand over Lucie’s mouth.

“Shush,” she said. “We’re talking about me now.”

Lucie frowned further, and when Haley didn’t remove the hand from her mouth, only looked smug across at the now-silenced Lucie, Lucie stuck out her tongue and licked the palm of Haley’s hand. She immediately regretted it, the taste of her hand cream coating her tongue and ruining the lingering taste of coffee in her mouth. But Haley’s squeal and very melodramatic leap backwards off the couch almost made up for it. She squealed, indignantly, and wiped her hand repeatedly on her skirt, criticising Lucie the whole time. Lucie only cackled, manically.

“You disgust me,” Haley said, once she’d pulled herself together and moved to sit on a chair on the opposite side of the room to Lucie. “And you keep interrupting my news!”

“Sorry.”

“Yeah, you ought to be,” Haley snapped. Then, she moved back towards her friend, sitting on the edge of the couch, smiling broadly. “As I was saying - I said his grandparents would object to us moving in together before marriage, and I was _right._ So, do you know what Alex did?”

“No.” The word was more a breath than a word, Lucie crept forwards on the edge of the couch, the mug cradled in her hands as though it were the most precious thing in the world. She stared into Haley’s smiling face, her bright eyes.

“Oh, yes,” Haley said, somehow beaming even wider.

“No! What?” Lucie seemed to be stuck, like a record jumping in its groove. “No?”

A hand lifted from a mug, the sunlight glinting off Haley’s finger.

“Yes.”

“WHAT?” 


	2. Do The Oven Mitts Match The Colour Scheme?

Haley grinned happily across at Lucie, bouncing slightly on the couch, her joy barely contained. She wiggled her fingers tauntingly at Lucie, who squeaked enthusiastically once more, and flung herself across the couch to inspect it. She glanced from ring to face to ring to face to the door for a reason she didn’t understand to the ring once more.

“Alex has good taste, this is beautiful,” Lucie sighed, holding on to Haley’s hand still. She twisted her finger gently, causing the small stone set in the centre to glimmer prettily, coyly, in the late afternoon glow.

Haley laughed, pulling her hand back.

“Oh, don’t you dare give him any credit. I picked my own ring,” she said, struggling to suppress her giggles. “By Yoba, can you imagine Alex trying to buy a ring?”

It was an entertaining thought, picturing Alex in a jewellery shop, looking at all the different styles around him and drawing blanks as to anything Haley might like.

Lucie tried to hold back the snort of laughter that wanted to erupt from her, she really tried. But then, the snort burst forth, like the oinking of a pig, and the two women dissolved into giggles.

* * *

Lucie stayed at Haley’s most of the afternoon and well into the evening, and behaved very well despite Haley’s bringing out of notebooks and binders in alarming proportions. She’d made the mistake of asking Haley if she’d started to think about planning the wedding yet, and had been met with a look that said _that’s so cute that you think I haven’t been planning this since I could write_. Then, Haley had said pretty much that exact phrase, and Lucie was stuck looking at mood-board after mood-board, thanking Yoba silently that Haley never expected her to share an opinion on anything beyond “Well, that’s pretty.” Haley did, however, demand that Lucie come with her to pick a wedding dress whenever she got up the nerve to go to Zuzu City to find one.

“You think my taste in dresses is appalling?”

“Exactly. If you suggest it, I know that I don’t want it,” Haley teased, before sinking back into the couch cushions and adding. “Please? I don’t want to go alone, and going with Emily is worse than going alone.”

Emily stuck her head out of her bedroom door and glowered at her sister.

“I heard that.”

Haley grinned at her.

“Oh, come on, you’d hate it even more than Lucie will,” Haley responded, then pressed a hand over Lucie’s mouth as she attempted to protest that she wouldn’t hate it. “And you, shut up. You’ll hate it, but you’ll do it anyway.”

Lucie caved, dropping her polite protests, and let Haley tell her all about her planned colour schemes.

* * *

When she returned home, Shane was standing in the kitchen, lowly humming along to the radio as he peered into the oven. He didn’t notice her until she draped her arms around his waist, and rested her head between his shoulder blades.

“Hey, you,” he said, moving to twist around to look at Lucie, but she didn’t relinquish her grip. “Am I not allowed to turn around?”

“Nope.”

“Not even to get the oven mitts?”

“Nope.”

“Our food will burn.”

“Don’t care,” Lucie murmured in his back, before sighing and releasing him, kissing the small section of exposed skin on the back of his neck. She stepped to the side and hopped up on to the counter, swinging her legs like a child as Shane hunted in drawers for the oven mitts. “I have news,” she announced as she watched him.

He glanced at her, raising an eyebrow in response, then returned to his hunt. Lucie merely smiled and so, having retrieved the oven mitts, Shane straightened and faced her.

“Go on, then, what be the news?” His hand turned to her, palm up, in an ‘over to you’ gesture. Lucie clasped her hands together on her lap and grinned.

“Alex proposed to Haley yesterday,” she sang. She looked expectantly at Shane who nodded and then took the dish out the oven. Lucie frowned at him. “That’s it? That’s your reaction?”

He shrugged, moving past her to place the dish on the counter, the heat of the glass burning his fingers even through the oven mitts.

“We need new oven mitts,” he muttered, more to himself than anything else. Lucie continued to look at him incredulously, tilting her head to get between him and their dinner.

“I tell you our friends are getting married, and your response is a shrug and ‘we need new oven mitts’?” She repeated, placing her hand down on the counter. Too close to the dish, her wrist brushed against the hot glass, scalding her slightly. “Ow, fuck, ow.” She pouted as she rubbed her arm. Shane gestured to the sink but she shook her head. It wasn’t a proper burn, just an ouch. So, instead he smiled at her and took her arm in his hand, and pressed a kiss to her wrist.

“I think that’s what we call ‘immediate karma’,” he teased. Then, when Lucie pouted even more, he added. “I just don’t get that excited by weddings. I mean, I’m happy for them, and that’s great that they want to do the whole wedding thing, but it just seems like a big spectacle to continue doing the same thing you were doing before.”

Lucie kissed him lightly on the cheek, and hopped off the counter, deciding to drop the topic.

“So, what did you make?”

“Fish pie?”

“Again?!”

“It’s the only thing I can cook!” The protest fell on deaf ears as Lucie pointed to the open scrapbook on the counter, containing all the letter which she’d received from the villagers in the last few years, containing dozens upon dozen of recipes. Shane looked away very deliberately, focused intently on dividing up the fish pie he’d made and turned the conversation back to marriage.

“Do you think we should do something to celebrate with them? And with Marnie and Lewis?” He suggested. “Like, nice meal out somewhere in Zuzu?”

Lucie nodded slowly.

“Haley will almost certainly suggest going out for a drink afterwards,” she mused. “But a meal would be a nice thing for all six of us.” She glanced up at the calendar, and smiled lightly. She didn’t say anything more, merely took her plate and headed towards the table.

“I still can’t believe you blackmailed Marnie and Lewis into being open about their relationship,” Shane laughed, joining Lucie at the table. “What did you even hold against them?”

Lucie merely smiled at him.


	3. If This Meal Is At A McDonalds, I Swear To All The Gods I Will Kill You, Lucie

Haley was apprehensive about going out with the combination of people Lucie had suggested. After all, Haley had barely spoken to Marnie in the whole time she’d lived in Pelican Town, and she actively avoided the mayor half the time. It wasn’t that they were unpleasant people, just Haley didn’t get them. She didn’t know how to talk to them. She didn’t know how to dress - oh Yoba, what was she going to wear to this stupid meal?

“Emily!”

This was ridiculous, and a stupid idea, and Lucie was almost certainly just doing it to torture her, but there was no way for her to get out of it.

“Emilyyyyyy.”

Why was her sister never in when Haley needed her to be?   
She banged on the door, then rattled the door handle, fumbling to open it. Just as she managed to get a purchase on the door, half turning the handle, it was wrenched from her grasp and there stood her sister, looking highly unimpressed.

“Yes?” Emily sighed, world-weary Emily, disrupted Emily - very nice Emily who would hopefully let Haley whine at her for an hour.

“Say, if you were going for a meal with your fiancé, the mayor, his fiancée, and then the idiots who live on the farm… what would you wear?” Haley grinned weakly at her, shrugging slightly. Emily raised an eyebrow.

“Are you genuinely asking me for fashion advice?” She asked, incredulously, moving past her sister and towards the kitchen. If Haley was going to interrupt her mediation, or daydreaming if Emily was honest, then Emily was going to get some more coffee.

Haley fiddled when the neckline of her dress, making a small high pitched noise, then elaborating:

“More asking for advice on how prudish Marnie and Lewis are.” Haley sighed dramatically, and flung herself down on to the couch as the kettle boiled. “You understand middle aged people better than me! You practically are one!”

“This isn’t making me feel willing to help you,” Emily drawled, hunting for the coffee. Which Haley had put in the wrong place. Again.

“Sorry - third shelf in the cupboard to your left - I just don’t know what to wear!” Haley wailed, pulling herself back upright, and holding her body there by clinging on to the cushions on the arm of the couch. “And I know you think it doesn’t matter, and it’s frivolous and stupid-“

Emily looked at Haley and Haley let the word die on her tongue, her face crumpling slightly.

“Yeah, I do think all that. But this stuff matters to you, and you are my baby sister, so I can make it matter to me for five minutes,” Emily sighed, and gestured towards Haley’s room. “Why don’t you show me what you’d wear if it was just you two, Lucie and Shane?”

* * *

The five minutes that Emily promised Haley turned into fifteen, then crept upwards towards an hour. She’d had to go get more coffee at about the forty minute mark, then returned to the room to lean against the door and purse her lips, deep in thought.

“Why don’t you wear the dress you picked up first - no, the blue one - and wear flats instead of heels, and wear a jacket type thing?” She suggested. “‘Cos then it’s still nice but it’s less…”

“Slutty?” Haley suggested, laughing lightly at herself. Emily smiled despite herself and shrugged slightly.

“You said it, not me,” she laughed. Haley grinned at her, then did something very unusual. She thanked her, promised to not whinge whenever Emily asked her to go buy something from Zuzu when she went, and swore she’d do the dishes tonight. Emily knew only one of those two things would happen, and it wasn’t the dishes, but she appreciated the thought nonetheless.

* * *

Lewis required some persuasion that going out for a meal with four children was a good plan. Marnie had to first of all insist that they weren’t children. Mostly they weren’t even all that childish - and Lewis liked Lucie! Haley was nice enough, and neither Marnie nor Lewis had spoken to her as much as they ought to have, and Lewis was always saying he wanted to get to know the younger ones better. And, if conversation ever ran dry, Marnie would just need to mention Grid Ball and both Alex and Shane would talk enough for the six of them. So, Lewis was going, and he was going to enjoy himself.

“Fine,” Lewis had finally relinquished. “So long as you make Lucie swear there is no chance of her father interrupting.”

* * *

Lewis went as far as showing up at Lucie’s farm to get his reassurance that Jacques would not appear, and would not mock him any further. He was laughed at quite a lot before Lucie could give him any assurances. And then laughed at some more. Lewis had turned bright red by the time Lucie had stopped laughing enough to apologise, then explained at Lewis was the fifth person to ask her that.

“It’s almost like my dad is very loud and annoying, or something,” she grinned. Lewis’ pink face faded a little and he allowed himself a small smile. “But, no, he’s away on business for the next month. Absolutely no chance of an additional member of my family disrupting us.”

Lucie leant back against the fence surrounding her vegetable patch and smiled at Lewis. Feeling awkward under her stare, he looked around the farm and hunted for something to say.

“You’ve made the most of this land. It’s unrecognisable from when you moved in.” It was clunky, but it would do. It shifted the conversation. Lucie beamed with pride, surveying her small section of the world with pride.

“Yeah, you’d hardly believe there was practically a forest here only three years ago,” she said, dispensing with any sense of modesty. It was an impressive achievement and she needed someone to notice it.

“Has it been three years already?” It wasn’t a forced comment from Lewis, he genuinely was surprised to hear it was both so long and not at all long. It felt like she’d been a part of the community for decades, but also that he was showing her to the farm only yesterday. “Your grandfather would be so proud of you.”

“You think?” Lucie’s eyes were wide as she looked at the mayor. She seemed to form a word, but no sound came out, then she swallowed and tried again. “If you’d like - I mean, if you have time - I could show you want I’ve done? I know you’re busy-“

“I’d like that.”

“Really?” Lucie was struggling with comprehension today apparently. She silently cursed herself, whilst smiling broadly at Lewis. “Well - I’ve been repairing the greenhouse recently…”

* * *

Lucie rambled happily about her farm as they wandered around the site, Lewis nodding and smiling, occasionally adding small interjections about how the farm had been before her grandfather had gotten too old and it had fallen into disrepair. She probed him about stories about her grandfather, beaming whenever he told her that he was just like her.

The easy chatter of Lucie reassured Lewis that maybe the meal wouldn’t be so painful after all. There was a childishness in the way that Lucie talked, but it was more one of wide-eyed awe and innocence than of being an annoying brat. And, after all, Lewis did know Shane, knew him to be a nice enough lad, just a bit hard on himself.

* * *

Why he’d ever been concerned, he didn’t know.


	4. Lewis Remembers Why He'd Been Concerned

Haley was by far the most overdressed of the six of them, but in the way that she liked to be overdressed. She looked perfect, just as Alex had proclaimed when he saw her milling by the bus stop. She had been a little concerned that she’d have gone too far, especially as Lucie wouldn’t tell anyone where they were going, but then Lucie had appeared, her hair up, make up attempted. It was reassuring to see that Lucie had made an effort, instead of simply throwing on a dress and hoping for the best, which was her usual approach. Haley smoothed her skirts, and linked her arm through Alex’s, muttering through a smile:

“Where’s Marnie and Lewis?”

Alex glanced at her, and frowned.

“How should I know?”

“You…” Haley trailed off and rubbed her forehead lightly with her thumb before trying again. “You literally live opposite Lewis. You can see into his kitchen from your bedroom.”

Alex merely shrugged in response and the exasperated sigh fell from Haley’s lips, unnoticed by her newly-won fiancé. Luckily for him, Lucie bounded over to them, the slight curls of her hair flying about her face. She grinned widely, and Haley suppressed her suspicion. Lucie seemed too happy - something was afoot.

“Good evening,” she greeted, far too enthusiastic. “I promised Lewis we’d behave, so you,” she turned to Alex, “no arguing about grid ball with Shane, and Haley?” Haley smiled innocently at her, the viper underneath, “if you get drunk I will be leaving you wherever you fall. And possibly pushing you into the sewers, because I need Lewis to like me.”

“Lewis does like you,” Alex frowned. Haley didn’t add anything, but she was pretty certain the scepticism that anyone disliked Lucie was written on her face.

“He _did_ ,” Lucie said, forced smiles and forced enthusiasm. “And then I pushed him to propose to Marnie and take his relationship very public, so now I think he doesn’t like me all that much…and I promised him my dad was away on business, but he’s back early and we’re going to my dad’s new restaurant and he’s going to be there and be him and Lewis is definitely going to hate me now.”

The final words came out all in a rush, tumbling and spilling over each other, the fake smile dropping. Lucie bit her lip, smearing the lipstick across her teeth and swallowed difficultly. Haley pointed it out to her, not unkindly, but not particularly kindly either, and when Lucie failed to get rid of the lipstick on her teeth, but succeeded at smearing it on to her chin, Haley let out an exasperated sigh for the second time.

“Oh, hell, just go home and fix it, Lucie. And bring Shane back with you, he’s not allowed out of this stupid meal,” Haley griped, crossing her arms and pouting slightly. Lucie frowned, and glanced around, as though noticing for the first time that Shane wasn’t there.

* * *

When Jacques greeted them at the riverside restaurant, Lewis sent Lucie a warning look. Betrayal was written across his face as he maintained eye contact with the young woman even as Jacques embraced him, lifting him slightly off his feet.

 _Why do you do this to me?_ He seemed to say, _Why do you hate me so, Lucienne?_

Lucie winced in apology, then grabbed her father by the elbow, pulling his head down to her level.

“Dad, you promised me you would stay in the kitchen,” she hissed, smiling widely to Shane and the others.

Jacques grinned. Glee written on his face.

“I did, didn’t I?” He replied at normal volume. He pulled his arm back, and turned back to the group. “Shane! It’s been a while!”

Shane shook the outstretched hand, only to find himself hauled into an embrace. Squished by the larger man’s overwhelming need to hug everyone and everything.

“You visited Lucie a week ago.” Shane frowned, his voice muffled against Jacques’ chest. “I was there. You did this exact thing.”

“Did I?”

“Yes. Can you get off now?”

Lucie poked her dad firmly in the ribs, causing him to release her boyfriend and insisted that he let them go sit. And that he went away.

* * *

For all of ten minutes the meal went well.

* * *

Their waitress was a very bitter ex-girlfriend of Alex’s, and Haley was living for the drama. Said ex-girlfriend didn’t seem to notice the ring on Haley’s finger, or perhaps didn’t care, because she persisted in the attempts to win Alex back as she took everyone’s orders. Haley, enjoying watching Alex squirm, proceeded to them be as affectionate as she could, which only made his red face grow redder, and Marnie and Lewis to grow increasingly uncomfortable.

The wine arrived on the table with a thud, a small splattering of red forming around the bottle as the woman then stalked away. It couldn’t have come any sooner.

* * *

Their food arrived and they lulled themselves into the small relief of conversation. Lucie demanded to know details about Haley and Alex’s engagement, pressing them with increasingly focused questions, not willing for this safe topic to stop. Then, Haley and Alex disagreed on how the proposal actually happened, about who said what and what that implied, and suddenly the main course became spectating a couple’s fight. It turns out that Haley was more bothered by the appearance of an ex than she let on, as the debate about the proposal blurred into petty squabbles about the waitress.

Lewis prayed to Yoba that the ground would split apart and swallow him whole before something else went wrong.

“So,” he said, over the top of the ever increasing voices. He hadn’t quite worked out what it was that he was going to say, but it didn’t matter anyway, as Haley scoffed at Alex and then flounced away towards the ladies’ toilets. Silence fell on their table.

The ex-girlfriend reappeared and fluttered her eyelashes in a grotesque manner as she inquired after their meal.

“Sarah? Was it?” Lucie asked innocently, smiling warmly. The waitress turned to look at her, as though she only just noticed the other four people sat at the table in that moment. She nodded faintly, unwilling to interact for longer than necessary with someone that was not Alex. Lucie beamed.

“Don’t,” Shane murmured softly to Lucie. She ignored him, locking her fingers together and resting her chin on their join instead.

“Great. Well, then, Sarah, is there someone else that could cover your section?” The tone was so polite, so exquisitely crafted to sound like Lucie was being reasonable. She continued to sound like she was merely asking for an extra jug of water as she added. “It’s just, well, you’re acting like a poisonous little bitch and giving ex-girlfriends everywhere a bad name, so I’m struggling to hold down the bile that rises whenever I see your face.”

Lucie didn’t wait for anyone to respond, and instead rose from her chair, lowly telling Shane that she was going to check on Haley. Unfortunately, Sarah tailed Lucie towards the bathroom.

* * *

Shane could see the discussion happening across the restaurant. Discussion seemed the wrong word, but it wasn’t quite an argument. The waitress, whatever her name had been, was growing increasingly pink in the face, but Lucie leant calmly against the doorframe, hands neatly folded in front of her. Whenever the waitress gestured angrily, Shane could see a faint, tight-lipped smile curl about Lucie’s lips. It was a different kind of angry that boiled in Lucie, a cold fire that made him pray never to be on receiving end of Lucie’s icy fury.

He realised with a start that someone had spoken to him, and hurriedly tore his gaze back to the table.

“Sorry, what?”

Marnie gave him a look. He’d received that look often enough to be able to read the affectionate disappointment in it. At least, he had decided in the last year or so that it was affectionate disappointment. It was easier to handle than just plain old disappointment.

“I said,” she spoke pointedly, a slight edge to her words, “that things are always lively when both of your girlfriends are involved.”

Alex chuckled lightly to himself.

“You remember the Flower Dance last year?” He said, looking across at Shane, who frowned in response.

“When Haley got stroppy at you for wearing a t-shirt, made you change and then threw a hissy fit that they’d started the dance without her?” He scratched the back of his neck as he tried to remember the day, but he’d mostly been distracted that day. Jas had decided that she wanted to join in the dance, and was very distressed to be told she couldn’t.

Alex grinned, and glanced at Lewis.

“She made you restart the whole thing?”

Lewis raised an eyebrow and lifted his glass, pausing to speak before he drank from it.

“I recall,” he said, not unpleasantly, “She was very insistent.”

“She also had a point,” Marnie interjected, glancing over at Alex. “You do tend to wear the same grid ball t-shirt every day. It’s a festival! You should have made an effort.”

Alex looked darkly at his food, and held his hands up slightly in mock-defeat.

“Oh, I have learnt my lesson,” he told his food. He gestured to the shirt he was wearing at that moment. “See? Proper shirt.”

Conversation flowed much more easily, to the point that, even when Shane and Alex started arguing about whose college grid ball team was better, laughter spilled forth with as much ease as the wine flowed.

* * *

It flowed even better when Lucie returned to the table with an extra bottle, holding the side to her cheek. She placed it lightly on the centre of the table and sat down without a word. Shane glanced at her, noted the slight redness of her cheek. He lent towards her, pretending to reach for the wine as he murmured to her.

“Did the waitress slap you?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you deserve it?”

Lucie looked at him, then winced and let her shoulders droop as she slouched against the chair. That was an obvious enough ‘Yeah’ for Shane to smile slightly and pour the wine into her glass, then place it back down on the table. His hand slid under the table and rested itself on Lucie’s knee, a comforting presence. A second later Lucie’s hand joined his, sliding fingers in-between his and squeezing lightly. She looked up at him and smiled softly, her slightly pink cheek creasing with the hint of a dimple as she did so.

“How’s the cheek?” Haley asked across the table, grinning at Lucie. She turned to Alex and added, “Your delightful ex slapped Lucie across the face.”

The concern that flashed across Marnie’s face was halted as Lucie shook her head rapidly.

“Fuck you, Haley,” she grinned. “I got slapped whilst defending your honour and you repay me by mocking my plight?” Lucie pressed a hand to her chest and widened her eyes. “I’m wounded.”

“You are, but not there,” Haley teased. Then, she frowned and added. “Defending my honour? No, you got slapped because you have a grudge against her for some reason.”

Lucie picked up her wine glass and drank from it, hiding her response in the glass. When Haley continued to look expectantly at her, Lucie caved.

“This is a low moment for me, okay, can we move along?” She laughed awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to get so pissed off at her, but Alex was very nice in his rejection of her and she just kept pushing! It’s like…no means no, and all that.”

A memory surfaced for both Alex and Shane. Shane looked across at him sharply, not quite hostile, but just a little colder than usual. Alex at least had the courtesy of looking a little abashed, and was quiet for a few moments.

Lucie caught the look that passed between the two men and squeezed Shane’s hand lightly.

“Dessert, anyone? I can recommend anything vaguely pastry-based, or the cheesecake. Or the brownie. And, actually, the sticky-toffee is pretty decent too.”

“So, the whole dessert menu is good?” Marnie teased. Lucie grinned and shrugged.

“Basically, yeah,” she laughed. “And also, I am paying for this whole meal and none of you are going to fight me on it. My treat.”

Shane laughed louder than Marnie protested.

“It sounds like she’s being really generous, but her dad promised her 50% off if she brought a large party to his restaurant,” Shane told Marnie, thus ruining Lucie’s attempt to be the generous neighbour. Lucie pulled her hand back and pouted.

“Even so, it is very generous of you, Lucie,” Lewis said, trying to make her feel a little better. Her face brightened and she grinned at him. The smile faded slightly as he added, “But it doesn’t make up for you promising your father wouldn’t be here, then bringing us to his restaurant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I know where this is going?
> 
> Nope. Am I going to work it out soon.... probably also nope. I am sorry, I'm the worst, please be nice to me


	5. So sore as Keeping Safe Nerissa's Ring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes the chapter title is a quote from the Merchant of Venice, and yes, it is an innuendo. I am a simply human okay

Haley was adamant that she was right about how Alex had proposed. She could remember it so vividly that Alex had to be the one that was wrong, he had done it in the moment, in the middle of an argument.

* * *

Haley had been lurking by the fountain, trying to take the right photo. It was a lovely day, and the water was catching the light in such a beautiful way, but when she tried to capture it through her lens, it just looked disappointing. It just looked like any old fountain. When she lowered the camera, the water seemed to flow like molten gold, the trees behind the water hinting at the colour change that would come soon. A handful of the leaves echoes the golden shimmer of the water, and made the moment seem even more ripe for the capturing, but it just kept evading her.

She knelt to try to get a better angle, and had taken a few photos, the shutter of her camera clicking loudly. Haley was so focused on the photo that she hadn’t noticed Alex walk up until he sat on the edge of the fountain, right in the middle of her shot. Lowering the camera, Haley looked at him, disapprovingly.

“Could you get more in the way?” She sighed, placing one hand on her hip. Despite the camera being looped around her neck, she kept one hand underneath it, supporting it. Just in case. She couldn’t afford another camera like this, and she didn’t trust the strap. It didn’t seem sturdy enough. “I mean, of all the places, Alex.”

Alex merely smiled at her and patted the small grey stone next to him. Haley rolled her eyes, but she joined him nonetheless.

“Gramps doesn’t really want us to move in with them,” Alex began. Haley scoffed lightly. She told him that weeks ago, it was why she suggested they move in to her place, just to start with. They could start there, save up to buy their own place, but no. Alex had insisted on staying with his grandparents. “And Evelyn is very against the whole idea of moving in before marriage.”

“Yeah, I remember the strop about Lucie and Shane,” Haley cut in, turning slightly on the stone to look at Alex. “I told you this would happen! I knew they wouldn’t be okay with us living together, it’s why I suggested you move in with me and Emily - I know she’s being a pain right now, but she’d come around.” Haley tossed her hair over her hair, shaking it out of her eyes so that she could see Alex fully. She opened her mouth to berate him some more, but snapped it shut again when she saw him fumble for something. Her heart caught in her throat, spluttering slightly with something she wasn’t prepared to name. His name fell from her lips before she realised what she was saying, her eyes drying as she watched him pull out a small box. He slowly lowered himself on to one knee and her head shook slightly as he took her hand in his.

“I’m not really good with words,” Alex shrugged, that stupidly cocky grin on his face. “But I know I’m good with you.”

“Alex…”

“I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. It’s probably stupidly fast, but, Haley, I love you. Will you marry me?” He looked up at her with those puppy dog eyes, his hand shaking slightly as it held hers.

“This isn’t just so I’ll agree to move in with your grandparents, is it?” Haley joked, the words sticking in her mouth slightly. She saw the slight glint in Alex’s eyes as he shook his head lightly, the small hint of emotion overwhelming him as he waited for Haley’s answer. He’d smiled at her joke, but now it started to crumple as she faltered. “Yes.”

Her agreement had been steady, the word coming out clearly, startling her with its strength.   
It had cracked Alex’s face in two, beaming from ear to ear. He’d flung himself up, wrapping Haley in a bear-like hug, lifting her feet up off the ground as he’d swirled her around. She remembered the way that the camera had dug into her diaphragm, remembered the way she’d felt the shutter click somehow as he flung her around.

She remembered the argument had continued as though they hadn’t just agreed to get married, as though it was just another day. It was clearly a spur of the moment thing - Alex had obviously thought about it the day before, gone to find the first ring box he could in Evelyn’s room, and proposed to her with an empty ring box.

Alex was being an idiot if he thought it happened any differently.

* * *

Alex remembered very clearly the pain of going to buy Haley a ring. It was the most awkward moment of his life. He’d been planning this for months, practically since they started dating. Alex had been in love with his closest friend for as long as he could remember, and so when she’d decided that he was good enough for her, his brain had leapt straight to ‘how long until I propose? Now is too soon, right?’. They’d wandered through Zuzu on one of Haley’s many journeys to go find new clothes. She almost never bought anything when she went, she just liked to look - Alex had learnt not to question the fun in simply looking and not buying. He’d managed to find a route that would take them past not just one, but seven different jewellers, and found a reason to stop in front of each one.

It was in front of the fourth shop, when he pretended to need to retie his shoelace, that Haley noticed and squealed with excitement.

“Can we just go look for five minutes?” She had begged him, looking like a child as she peered in the window, craning her neck to look inside. Alex had shrugged at her, and shoved his hands in his pockets, pretending like he didn’t care. But he noted every ring that she faltered over, every comment she made.

Big stones were a no-no, apparently they were tacky and disgusting. She seemed to be a big fan of the triple-diamond look, and especially the ones that had some funky swirls on the metal band-bit of the ring. Alex had watched her carefully, had given deliberately non-committal answers when Haley had turned to him, trying very hard to not really pay attention. The man behind the counter had caught Alex’s eye and given him a knowing look, inviting him to go help him carry through another few trays of rings for Haley’s inspection. When the door had clicked shut behind Alex, the man turned to him and said:

“If you would like, we can hold the ones she seems particularly interested in,” he paused, then handed Alex a tray full of rings. The man glanced at Alex and lowered his voice further. “Along with similar styles that are a little more…budget friendly, if you’d like.”

Alex had thanked him readily, agreeing to the plan. The man had given him a conspiratorial wink, and picked up his own tray, sidling back through the door.

Alex had come back the next day, selecting one of the triple-diamond rings in white gold. It was very similar to the one that Haley had cooed over, but it was two thirds the price. He hoped that Haley would forgive him.

And when Haley had made that god-awful joke about moving in with him, then paused, Alex hoped to Yoba that he’d kept the receipt so that he’d be able to afford to move far far away to die in shame on his own.

Thank Yoba that she’d agreed after that eternity. But he knew that he’d bought the ring a full two months before he proposed to her, as when he went back to his room that night, he hunted down the receipt and discovered it only had a 30 day return policy, so he’d have been well and truly screwed if he’d been rejected. 


	6. The Only Logical Response Was To Lick Her Hand

Haley was very good at persuading people that they wanted to go out. Lucie was even better at digging her heels in and flat out refusing.

“Please?” Haley resorted to merely whining, stamping her foot slightly as she spoke. Lucie glanced down at the foot in question, and raised an eyebrow. She rested one elbow on the bar, resting her chin on her furled fingers, letting Haley stew in her strop. “Come on, Lucie, you never do anything fun.”

“Clubs are sticky and loud,” Lucie said, straightening slightly in her own defence. “I am not setting a single foot in one. Not tonight, and probably not any other night either.”

Haley slumped on the bar, scowling slightly. Lucie patted her on the head, only slightly condescendingly.

“I hate you,” Haley moaned. “You’re buying me a drink right now to make up for it.”

Lucie bit back her laugh, resisting the urge to point out that she was already going to buy Haley a drink, after all, that was why the two of them were lurking at the bar, waiting for the very picky tourists next to them to just decide what to drink already.

A comfortable silence fell over them for a few moments, both of them pretending like they weren’t listening into the tourists conversation. Lucie’s fingers drummed on the bar, a nervous habit she hadn’t quite managed to shake. Haley’s eyes flickered to the drumming fingers, then to the tourists, then back to Lucie. She took a very deliberate step forwards and slammed her hand down on top of Lucie’s own, the ring colliding hard with one of the bones in Lucie’s hand. Lucie opened her mouth to protest, to swear, to do something, but Haley was already lacing her fingers between Lucie’s and talking excessively loudly.

“Honey, didn’t you say that this was the place with that cocktail you liked?” Haley smiled brightly up at Lucie, who furrowed her brow in confusion at her.

“Haley, what ar-“ Lucie began, before cutting off as a shoe pressed on to her own foot. Lucie turned slightly more towards Haley, caught the slight incline of her head towards the tourists, then smiled broadly back at her. She lifted the hand that Haley had grabbed and twisted it in order to hold Haley’s hand in a manner that looked less like Haley was secretly holding Lucie’s family hostage and would slaughter them all unless she played along. “Oh! Yeah, darling, I do think you are right.” The false sweetness in Lucie’s voice was enough to make anyone gag. “I think it was called the ‘Rose Bud’ or something similar?”

Haley beamed at her, gushing loudly about this drink that Lucie had no idea if her father’s restaurant served or not. Luckily, when the two tourists asked the young man behind the bar for said invented drink, he smiled, nodded and promised to get them two straight away. Lucie pointedly peeled the hand from her own, glaring slightly at Haley and pushing it into her face.

“You see this red mark?” She demanded. “That was your stupid ring. You know how I know who is right in your stupid argument with Alex? Because you slapped me on Monday and it would have fucking hurt so much more if you’d had a piece of metal to hand.” Haley grinned widely, and did a small victory dance, but Lucie wasn’t done. She grabbed her hand and forced the happy dance to die. “Oh, no, no, no ma cherie - he proposed with an empty box, but he’d bought the ring nearly two months earlier, because he kept asking me weirdly cryptic questions about returning jewellery.”

Haley pouted, her happy dance floundering. Her arms lowered to her sides, Lucie’s grip on her arm slackening. She tilted her head to the side and frowned.

“Then how did you not work out he was going to propose if you knew he bought a ring?” She asked, leaning heavily against the bar. Lucie rolled her eyes and turned towards the bartender, waving to him with a small twitch of her hand.

“I thought he’d bought you a necklace that you hated or something, I didn’t know it was a _ring_ , dumbass,” Lucie said, stroppily waving a hand through the air. The bartender moved towards them, raising an eyebrow slightly as Haley scowled at Lucie, who ignored her and smiled warmly at the young man. “Three beers, your cheapest bottle of wine and whatever the hell she wants, please!”

* * *

Haley utterly failed to coerce Lucie into going out with her and Alex, even going so far as to try to get Shane on-side. He had merely looked at her, unimpressed and questioned why on earth Haley thought that Shane would be the one more likely to want to go out to a club. Asking the person famed for his antisocial attitudes to convince his girlfriend to be social was not Haley’s finest moment, and it had killed any further attempts even as they were brewing. And so the company parted at the restaurant doors. Alex and Haley headed off deeper into the city, moving away from the snaking river and ‘towards fun’ as Haley put it, whilst the remaining four all headed back towards the bus stop. They moved far slower than the young couple hurrying away from them, content to meander back and dwell in their own company.

Lucie linked her arm through Shane’s as they wandered slowly along the riverside path, the hum of the city sounding distant, like a television that had been left on in the next room. They walked a few feet ahead of Marnie and Lewis, able to hear that they were talking, but unable to make out any of the words. Shane hoped that meant that their conversation would be equally private.

“I love you,” Lucie sighed, resting her head lightly against Shane’s shoulder. “Thank you for coming. I know you didn’t want to.”

Shane glanced down at her, and untangled their arms, instead threading his fingers through hers.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to come,” he protested softly. “Sometimes it’s just hard to work up the energy.”

“I get that.” Lucie lightly squeezed the hand that held hers. “So, thank you.”

“It’s easier when I have someone I want to do the thing with,” Shane said, noncommittally, trying desperately to keep a lightness in his voice. Lucie beamed up at him, Yoba, she was adorable when she did that stupidly goofy grin. She nudged her shoulder into his, playfully sending him a step away from her but then pulling him back in close by the tether of their united hands.

“Such a dork,” she teased.

“You picked me,” Shane retorted, trying very hard not to grin at her. Failing very hard not to grin at her. “What does that say about you?”

Lucie didn’t answer, electing instead to look up at the sky, stopping in the middle of the path to do so. Shane pulled her to the side, letting Marnie and Lewis pass them, as Lucie grabbed his other hand and pulled him towards her. Marnie glanced back at them as she wandered past, making eye contact with Shane and smiling. He rolled his eyes at her - after all, he had to at least pretend like he was still a little resentful of any affection.

“Can barely see any stars here compared to in the valley,” he commented, following Lucie’s gaze.

“True,” she smiled back, looking at him instead of the sky, the same expression on her face. “But the ones you can see are just as beautiful.”

“Like you.” Shane kissed her nose as he spoke. Even in the darkening night, Shane could see her eyes slide away from him, the bashful smile spreading across her face.

“Like you,” she replied. “You’re pretty.”

“I’m old and fat,” Shane retorted. Lucie narrowed her eyes at him, a faux-glower on her face, looking surprisingly like a photo of a very angry chipmunk Alex had once sent to Shane. Lucie pressed her hand over Shane’s mouth, silencing his self-deprecating comments for now.

“And pretty,” she said again, emphasising the word pretty. “Also - we talked about the fat thing, and you’re like, two years older than me, and I’m not old, so ha.”

Shane looked at Lucie, scepticism and disapproval filling his eyes. He shook his head lightly and Lucie repeated herself for the third time.

“Shane - you are an attractive human being and I will tell you this until I am blue in the face so stop it.” He didn’t move, and yet, Lucie raised an eyebrow. “Nope. Stop. It.” He rolled his eyes, but held up his hands slightly. Lucie smiled but didn’t remove her hand.

The only logical response that Shane had was to lick her hand.

* * *

Lucie continued to wipe her hand on his jacket intermittently the entire walk back to the bus stop, telling him in no uncertain terms how vile and disgusting it was to lick someone. Shane fought the urge to make a comment. He really did.

But when Marnie and Lewis moved far enough away that he was certain they wouldn’t hear, he leaned in slightly closer and murmured in her ear how sometimes she seemed to like it when he licked her. How sometimes she liked it so much that these very small little noises erupted from her, and how her fists would clench in his hair.

Lucie turned pink, and didn’t object to the licking once more.

* * *

When they returned to her farm, she locked the door behind them, turning to Shane and demanding he live up to his bold claim from earlier.

He was only too happy to oblige.


	7. Keeping Mum About It

It was a week until Lewis and Marnie’s wedding, the time having flown in so quickly that Marnie was certain she must have been unconscious for a month or so and no one thought to tell her. She was filled with a nervous energy - finding excuses to go move, go find, go do all the time - the dress hanging on the back of her wardrobe more a threat than a promise.

She did want to marry Lewis. But, she’d also made it this far in life without marrying him, and weddings felt like things for the young, felt like things that she should have grown out of by now, and maybe it would be better if they didn’t do this big spectacle event. In the town centre. Having invited everyone weeks ago and reminded everyone about it yesterday.

The announcement that happened at her behest.

Marnie sat heavily down in the kitchen chair and sighed, pressing her elbows so firmly into the table that she was certain she’d left dents in it. Her head rested in her palms, cupped to hold her forehead as she memorised the pattern of swirls and scratches on her table. Her heart challenged her mind to a race, and both flagged. Somehow both were losing and she couldn’t deal with this anymore - she didn’t want this anymore.

‘This’ being the build up. Not the relationship, she told herself sternly. Soon it would be the day, and then it would all be fine. She’d be rid of these godforsaken nerves and would be able to enjoy her life once more.

She just needed to find ways of distracting herself until then.

* * *

Lucie felt her back protest at yet more tilling of the ground. She told it to shut up.

“I didn’t say anything yet,” an amused voice said from behind her.

Lucie would not admit that she jumped. She just moved from one spot to another very enthusiastically, slightly alarmed at the fact that someone appeared to be able to read her mind, and also that someone was right behind her.

“By Yoba - Marnie!” Lucie spluttered. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.” Lucie rested against the fence post, dramatically clutching her chest. Marnie looked at her with the displeasure of a mother, that maternally kindness that simply screamed ‘you are such an idiot’. Lucie loved that look.

“I need a distraction,” Marnie finally said, cutting through Lucie’s melodrama. That caught the young woman’s attention and she straightened, abandoning the hoe and moving towards the gate. “It’s a week until, well, until You Know. And I have nothing to do - I need something to do. You always seem to be needing work done, so…” Marnie trailed off as Lucie blinked at her.

“Um.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m sure there’s something back at the Ranch I could find,” Marnie waved a hand dismissively. “Jas might like a more grown-up bedroom?”

Lucie raised an eyebrow at Marnie, one hand resting on her hip.

“Seriously? When have you ever seen Jas wear a colour that isn’t purple?” Lucie retorted. She grinned at Marnie. “But if you’re happy to paint, my barn is an absolute disgrace and I really cannot be arsed.”

“Language.”

“Sorry, mu-Marnie. Marnie. I said Marnie.” Lucie’s face burned a bright red, her back suddenly _very_ rigid. Slowly, a grin spread across Marnie’s face and Lucie burned even brighter, snatching the hoe back up and pointing it towards Marnie. She repeated herself once more.

“I didn’t know you saw me as a maternal figure,” Marnie teased. “That’s so sweet.”

Lucie glowered at her, but the effect was thoroughly undermined by the redness of her cheeks and the shuffling of her feet. Marnie leant over the fence and lightly ruffled Lucie’s hair in a deliberately condescending manner.

“If you tell anyone that I did NOT call you ‘Mum’, I will end up,” Lucie threatened, still holding the hoe as though it were a weapon. Marnie beamed at her, heading over to the barn with a bounce in her step that sent her curls bounding about her shoulders. “Marnie - Do Not Tell Anyone!”

“Do you have any paint, darling?” Marnie asked innocently.

“Mu- oh, for fuck’s sake.” Lucie pressed a hand to her mouth and screamed into it slightly. Marnie laughed uproariously as she peeked inside the barn, the doors grating loudly as she forced them open. Lucie’s scream of despair was lost to the crunching of metal.

* * *

The painting of the barn was surprisingly therapeutic. The repetitive action let Marnie lose herself in the motion, not thinking just doing. She brushed paint on with an artist’s care, filling every groove of the shed with a precision that it really did not need. It let her escape into the world of nothingness, of an empty mind, void of any of her worldly concerns.   
Here, in this moment, she only had to think of the paint and the wood it was covering. Marnie could let the rest of the world slip away and blur into a distant reality she had nothing to do with.

There was also the added benefit of Lucie providing her with coffee at every opportunity, making her lunch and dinner. It was almost as though she was trying to bribe Marnie into staying silent about the fact that Lucie had nearly called her ‘Mum’. Which was beautifully ironic, as Marnie was pretty certain she would have already forgotten about the incident had Lucie not tried oh-so-hard to make her ‘forget’ it.

Before Marnie realised, the evening had settled in around her. Long shadows were cast by the barn and the trees alike, long fingered shadows that snaked across the ground towards her. The birdsong that had formed a soft background noise to her painting had blurred into the soft hooting of a lullaby. Marnie had sat down next to the barn, draining the last of the coffee Lucie had brought her - decaf, the sneaky thing. Marnie was certain that she assumed she wouldn’t notice, but she did; and she got the implicit hint in it.

A small rap on the door alerted the two young adult inside to her presence before Marnie slipped inside and placed the mug softly beside the sink. She hoped to move away quickly, with nothing more than a swift thank you, but Lucie settled in against the counter and smiled softly at Marnie.

“Hey, um,” Lucie began awkwardly. Marnie faltered, turning back to look at her. Lucie’s hands, splayed out on the counter, tapped out a small rhythm as she hunted for the words. “I know we - I - kind of pushed you into this whole wedding thing,” she offered, stumbling slightly on her words. “If this isn’t just, you know, usual nervous behaviour, I’m happy to also push you both out of this. Somehow.”

Marnie smiled at Lucie, the young woman scratching the back of her head and avoiding the kind eyes that took in the offer. Marnie quickly closed the gap and embraced Lucie, pulling her tightly against her own body.

“Thank you,” She said, pulling away and holding Lucie at arm’s length, hands remaining on her shoulders. “But, I think I’m just worried I’m too old for this.”

Over on the couch, Shane snorted. Both women turned to look at him, one raising an eyebrow at him, the other widening her eyes in such a manner that shouted ‘I’m going to murder you with deranged chicken if you aren’t careful’. Shane chose to ignore both and rolled his eyes.

“Marnie, I love you, but that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said, barely even looking up from the game he was playing. “‘Too old for this’, honestly.”

Marnie let go of Lucie, glancing between Shane, who persisted in looking like he was focused on the game, even though the save-screen was visible to everyone present, and Lucie, who frowned at him. Lucie pointed to Shane, then turned to Marnie and pressed the hand to her mouth. Marnie laughed and strode over to him, kissing the top of his head lightly.

“Lucie, you broke my nephew,” she teased. “The Shane I know would never say the ‘l-word’.”

Shane grumbled lightly to himself, but Marnie was already heading out the door, thanking both of them again.

The door clicked shut behind her, and she headed back to the ranch, in much lighter spirits than she’d left it earlier that morning.


	8. 'No' is a flexible answer, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know that feeling when someone you know finds your fanfic, talks to you about it without realising it is yours, and then you die and they realise it is your garbage writing?
> 
> Yeah.... hi Jake. Please give me a good mark on my midmod assessment, because I don't think PECs cover 'my lecturer found my fanfic and now I can't write anything because I'm too busy dying from horrific levels of embarrassment'

Haley was determined that Marnie needed to have some form of bachelorette party. Marnie was determined that she was going to have no such thing.

* * *

The argument spanned three days, and Haley was rapidly running out of time to throw said bachelorette party. You might have thought that this would make Haley reconsider, make her question whether she ought to listen to Marnie and just accept that she didn’t want any ridiculous party.

However, if you did think that, you would be so very wrong, as the effect it truly had was to make Haley more determined to throw her some form of party. She was gathering supplies for anything she could think of - which was simply Haley code for ‘she bought an awful lot of wine’ and stashed it in the basement of her and Emily’s house. Haley was also starting to get desperate enough to try to get Shane on her side - Lucie was a no go. Lucie probably would agree with Marnie that it was a pointless endeavour and it undermined the whole ‘committing yourself to another person’ thing, if you went out to celebrate a ‘final night of freedom’ and that getting ‘shitfaced drunk was not ever a good plan, Haley, why don’t we just have a night in or something?’

Haley had not considered that one of the main reasons why Lucie and Shane had started dating was because they had a very similar outlook on life. And so, when Haley did go to beg, plead, bribe, whatever, Shane into making Marnie have a bachelorette party, she was met with a raised eyebrow, an unimpressed look and a very disheartening response.

“Haley,” Shane put down the controller to look at her fully. “Don’t be a dumbass.”

“I’m not!” Haley protested, resisting the urge to stamp her foot like a stroppy child. “I just think it is good celebrate things in life - I mean, how many times is Marnie likely to get married in her life?”

Shane sighed. Audibly. He crossed his arms and leant back into the couch cushions, shrugging slightly as Haley stropped in the middle of his lounge.

“Okay, here’s the thing, though,” he finally said. Haley whipped around with an enthusiasm that scared Shane. A lot about Haley scared Shane. She was a very confident human being, and that was just disturbing - Shane didn’t trust people who didn’t visibly hate themselves just a little bit. “You are thinking about what you’d like as a hen do, right? Marnie is not you. Marnie likes…nights in and home-cooked meals and gets excited over wheels of cheese.”

Haley threw her hands up, twirled on the spot and then threw herself down on to the couch next to Shane.

“Well, she can’t just ignore it,” she protested, crossing her arms sulkily. “It’s a rite of passage. It’s part of building up to the wedding - I mean, it’s the self-pampering bits that are fun.” Haley looked up at the ceiling, her head resting on the couch cushions and let out a wail of despair.

“I think this matters a lot more to you than it does to Marnie,” Shane said slowly, praying for an escape.

“It matters!”

“Okay - don’t yell at me.” Shane moved slightly further down the couch, avoiding the flailing arm that joined Haley’s protests. “Why don’t you try to get her to agree to something more like…Marnie?”

“I don’t know how to be more like Marnie,” Haley pouted. Shane frowned at her.

“How on earth are you Lucie’s best friend then?” He asked. Haley shrugged. Shane rolled his eyes at her and sighed. “Why don’t you go ask Lucie what she’d do, and then…just organise it and guilt Marnie into going?”

“Guilt tripping!” Haley grinned widely at Shane, standing up with alarming amounts of enthusiasm. “Shane, you are the best and I love you.” She beamed and kissed his cheek with a cartoonishly loud ‘mwah’. Shane resisted the urge to wipe his cheek like a primary school kid, but also he could feel the dampness on his cheek and it was thoroughly disgusting.

“Please,” he said, still wincing slightly. “Never do that again.”

“Whatever!”

The door slammed. Shane looked at it suspiciously for a moment, then, when Haley didn’t burst back through it, picked up his controller and restarted his game.

* * *

Marnie had been out for less than an hour and somehow Lucie and Haley were both in her kitchen making god-knows what - and was that Emily in her lounge? With Jodi and Caroline?

“Marnie!” Lucie grinned, and spun around, nearly sending some potatoes flying from the tray she was about to shove in the oven. She tilted it back, sending a handful up into the air, but managed to catch them on the tray and quickly shook the tray, separating them back out. The tray was shoved quickly into the oven, the door pressed shut, the oven gloves tossed over her shoulder, as Lucie moved swiftly over to Marnie and gave her a quick hug.

“We know you said you didn’t want to have a proper hen do -“

“-Bachelorette Party!” Haley corrected from the kitchen.

“-that thing,” Lucie waved away the correction and beamed at her. “So, we’ve decided you need to do something. Haley and I have made potato wedges, and pizza, and pepper poppers, and a curry… and something else I think. We’ve brought every feel-good film we can think of, and a Haley has like, a whole suitcase full of weird shit she’s calling ‘self-care products’.” Lucie somehow grinned wider, whilst Marnie blinked at her in surprise. Her eyes briefly slid off Marnie’s face and towards the women in the lounge, she frowned and then her eyes lit up once more. “Oh! And we all brought about three bottles of wine each, so there’s that!”

Marnie slowly closed the door behind her. A silence fell over the house, the only noise was the gentle humming of the oven. Slowly, Marnie turned to look at Haley, who had foolishly put her tray of potatoes in the oven too, so now she had nothing to pretend to be busy with and had no choice but to meet Marnie’s gaze.

“Haley,” Marnie smiled thinly. The kind of smile that wasn’t a smile at all. “What part of ‘No, I really don’t want to have a bachelorette party’, do you not understand?”

“The ‘no’ part,” Haley offered, a tentative smile on her face.

The silence seemed to drag on for a lifetime.

* * *

Then, Marnie shook her head and laughed.

“Okay, well I hope at least one of you brought ‘Pride and Prejudice’,” she said, moving towards the lounge. The women in the room grinned, Jodi holding the offending film aloft. Marnie laughed lightly once more, and demanded Lucie bring her a glass of wine to make up for the surprise of having a bunch of people suddenly in her house.

“Where is Jas?” She asked suddenly, as Lucie handed her the glass of pink liquid - it was a bachelorette party, of course, they were drinking rosé - sitting up a little straighter and staring Lucie in the eye. Lucie dramatically clutched a hand over her mouth, gasping loudly.

“Oh no! I didn’t think about that!” Lucie snorted slightly as Marnie looked at her, thoroughly unimpressed. She then added: “She’s at my house, with Shane. You know, her godfather who is the one actually legally responsible for her even though he doesn’t act it?”

“You left her with Shane?” Marnie asked, raising an eyebrow at Lucie, who responded by placing a hand on her hip.

“Yes, I did,” Lucie said, slightly more snippily than she had intended. “Because he is her guardian. And we have a house with a perfectly adequate sofa-bed in it, as well as a kitchen stocked with plenty of fruits and veg, and a recipe for a shepherd’s pie stuck on the fridge.”

Marnie flapped her hand away.

“Oh, yeah, I know he’ll look after her well enough, just she’ll start pestering me to buy her that game-box-thing again,” Marnie sighed, rubbing her head with her hand. Lucie turned slightly pink, her ears suddenly feeling very hot indeed.

“Sorry, Marnie,” she muttered. “And hey. No worrying about tomorrow’s problems. This is supposed to be a fun night in with all your friends. And Haley.”

“Hey!”


	9. Can you officiate your own wedding?

Marnie was much happier for having had the bachelorette party, not that she would ever tell Haley this. It did help her to feel like she was in control of what was happening - somehow, a surprise celebration twisted the wedding from something terrifying, that had been built up into something dramatic and overblown, to the actual small gathering of friends that it was. The nerves that had twisted her gut into knots, more tangled than a pair of earphones foolishly shoved into a pocket, managed to untangle themselves, and even the dress that hung on the back of her wardrobe no longer seemed to loom over her.

Which was almost certainly a good thing, given that the wedding was on Thursday and it was now Tuesday. Unfortunately, Marnie had nothing to fill the next two days with - Lucie had taken it upon herself to deal with the flowers, Robin was building an arch for Lewis and Marnie to stand under, proclaiming it was ‘romantic’ and ‘cute’ and ‘don’t be ridiculous Marnie, I built half of Lucie’s house in three days, it will take me all of an hour, it really isn’t putting me out at all’. Gus had the catering under control. Haley had offered to do hair and make-up for Marnie and Jas - and had even found the dress for Jas.

Marnie had nothing to do. She was almost hoping one of her animals would escape, so she could at least do something, anything other than wait for Thursday to rear its head.

* * *

Lucie lay on the ground, hidden between the growing flowers that would form the decorations for Marnie and Lewis’s wedding, staring up at the puffy white clouds wandering over the sky. She yawned widely, arms stretched behind her head, lost in thought. She’d done all her work for the day, and honestly, she could not be bothered to go foraging, or chopping trees, or mining, so she was just going to lie here and enjoy the sun. And the quiet.

She almost didn’t notice Lewis wander on to her farm, looking around desperately and muttering lightly to himself. It was only when he passed the fenced off garden, that Lucie realised she wasn’t alone and sat up.

“Lewis?” She called, forcing herself to her feet and brushing some of the dirt off her trousers. “Everything alright?”

He turned to look at her, relief and panic on his face in equal measure. He scratched his arm rapidly, gaze glancing away from Lucie, before he swallowed hard and forced himself to meet Lucie’s gaze.

“I may have,” he began, “made a small oversight regarding the wedding.”

“Ah.” Lucie picked her way carefully to the gate and hopped over it. Lewis leant against the supporting column on her porch and sighed heavily.

“I didn’t think about the fact that I am currently the only person qualified to officiate marriages in Stardew Valley,” Lewis explained, rubbing his forehead. “There’s obviously the Governor, but I’m fairly certain two days notice is not enough.”

Lucie made a small sympathetic noise, folding her hands in front of her and leaning against her fence. Lewis looked at her, as though he was hoping she would somehow fix his issue. Lucie kept her face deliberately neutral, even though her mind was screaming at her. How the hell was she supposed to sort this out? What did Lewis expect her to do? Go bribe the Governor into coming - if this had been some terrible film, Lucie was certain that there would some plot line about her having to sleep with the Governor in order to ensure her friend’s wedding went ahead, but this was not that film. She needed to get better tastes in films.

“I’m sorry, Lewis,” she said, hesitantly, stopping the downwards spiral of thoughts which would undoubtedly end in ‘should I watch X film?’. “But I don’t know what I can do to help you out here. I don’t know any government officials aside from you.”

“I was thinking that your father seems to know everyone, surely he must know a mayor of a neighbouring town?” Lewis asked hopefully. “Or a priest? Or something?”

Lucie swore. Colourfully enough that Lewis actively straightened, looking surprised at her reaction. Then, his eyes brightened as he realised that the swearing was due to realisation, not just a sudden hatred for him.

“My dad doesn’t,” Lucie muttered. “But the bitch does.”

Lewis frowned at her. Lucie merely groaned, and pushed herself off the fence, moving towards her house. She faltered as she drew level with Lewis and looked at him, her face crumpled in distaste. “You owe me big time for this. The bitch married a priest after she left dad, and she’ll be ecstatic that I’ve got in contact so will agree to anything.”

“You shouldn’t refer to your mother as a bitch,” Lewis said gently. Lucie raised an eyebrow at him.

“You have met my mother, haven’t you, Lewis?” She asked, crossing her arms and turning fully to him.

“I never said it was inaccurate,” he amended. Lucie shook her head, not even willing to smile at his attempt at humour.

“You owe me so much, Lewis. So, so much.”

* * *

“Explain to me again why your mother is coming.” Shane crossed his arms and leant against the cabinet in the kitchen, while Lucie sat on the couch, laptop on her knee, the reply to her mother half written. Lucie groaned, and pressed her head into the keys. The keyboard smash was probably the most coherent section of the email.

“Because Lewis is stupid, that’s why,” she mumbled. “He didn’t get anyone to officiate the wedding, so now I have to call in a favour from dear old mum and her stupid priest-wife.”

“I thought your mother ran off with a receptionist?” Shane frowned. Lucie lifted her head, looked at the email, then snapped her laptop shut and tossed it to the far side of the couch. It bounced on the cushions and fell to the floor with a clattering thud. She watched the laptop slither into a flat position, upside down on the floor. It evoked an emotion she didn’t understand but she did feel.

“She did,” Lucie muttered, pressing her hands to her face and pushing back off her face, only for it to flop back down in front of her eyes. She huffed loudly, blowing the hair up and ever so slightly to the side. It would do. “But then she dumped that guy, found her ‘soul mate’,” the gesture was the most mocking thing Shane had ever seen Lucie do, “in a priest-y, preachy woman. Who, to be fair, does seem alright, just has terrible taste in spouses.”

“Right,” Shane said, not understanding at all. “So, why does that mean your mother has to come too?”

“Because she likes to torment me,” Lucie wailed. Shane looked at his girlfriend, head thrown back and hands over her face, and realised exactly what he ought to do.

He flicked the switch on the kettle.

“I love you,” Lucie murmured through her fingers.

“I know. I’m the greatest boyfriend of them all,” Shane teased, moving over to the couch and kissing the small exposed part of her forehead. She caught his hands in hers and looked up at him, the faintest of smiles on her face.

“You really are, you know that?” She said quietly. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

Shane pulled his hand away and crumpled his face in faux-disgust.

“Ew, affection,” he teased, heading back to the kitchen, and hunting for the tea bags. He pulled the small box towards him, pausing with the lid open and turning to look at his person, sprawled on the couch still. “I love you too.”

“Even if I invite my mother to stay in the spare room?”

“I mean.” The cushion collided with Shane’s head. Once this kind of teasing would have made him irrationally angry, irritating him to no end - whether it was directed at him or between two unconnected people. But now? Now Shane laughed at her, throwing the cushion back to Lucie and added: “I’ll still love you, but I might take up drinking again.”

“Okay, that isn’t funny, Shane,” Lucie said, the laughter dying in her. “The last time you drank too much is still far too recent for that to be funny.”

“It’s been years since I went completely off the rails,” Shane said, defensively. He didn’t look around at Lucie, focusing intently on the tea in front of him. “Nearly three years!”

“Yeah, and I remember every detail of that night,” Lucie snapped back. “I spent the whole night sat by your bedside, terrified you wouldn’t make it through the night.”

Shane flicked the teabag into the bin, and bit back the smallest of smiles. He remembered that night too. “You said as much. It was also the first time you told me you loved me.”

“You knew?!” Lucie grabbed Shane’s arm, letting go almost as soon as she grabbed him. “You little shit, I hate you.” Shane kissed her on the nose and grinned as he leant back again. Lucie smiled at him despite herself.

“It’s so easy to stop you being annoyed at me,” Shane teased. Lucie stuck her tongue out at him.

“No, I’m now annoyed about the fact that you let me stew for weeks thinking that I was imagining you flirting back at me,” she said, crossing her arms, but the smile burst back on to her face. “You, Shane, are a pain in my arse and I love you so much.”

“That’s so lame.”

“Oh, shut up and kiss me again.”


	10. Day Drinking A Business Into Existence

Haley felt a little guilty going shopping for a new dress. After all, she didn’t strictly speaking need one - she had about four different dresses that would be lovely for Marnie and Lewis’ wedding, and would even match the colour scheme to a degree. Haley did suit the burgundy dress. But she wanted something different, something that she hadn’t already ripped apart and put back together, something that hadn’t been mended and restitched and reworked until Haley somehow ended up with a dress that looked exactly the same as when she’d started.

Buying a new dress did seem to go against her current plans to sell everything she didn’t need to a charity shop. That stupid article about fast fashion had got to her. All she wanted was to get on the bus to Zuzu City, mooch around shops for a few hours, buy a dress, feel happy and come home again, but no! Her stupid brain kept stupidly bringing up that stupid article and now all she felt was stupid guilt.

She scowled at the bus stop, the internal debate raging. Then, with a heavy sigh, Haley stalked straight past it and on to Lucie’s farm. If she couldn’t let herself buy a new dress, she’d torture Lucie by insisting she wore something sensible for once. At least if she made Lucie wear something Haley already owned it would offset the buying of a new dress?

Haley sighed once more as the reasoning fell flat in her own mind, slamming the wooden gate shut behind her with a little more enthusiasm than she meant. The wood creaked in protest, bouncing back from Haley’s vicious throw, and she glared at it, shutting it properly this time.

“Lucie!” Haley called to the empty farm. She folded her arms across her chest and strode over to the house, looking around for any sign of Lucie as she did so. Her fist pummelled against the door, a little too hard, her hand aching from the collision. “Lucie - come on. I’m having a bad day so you need to be having a worse one.”

The door swung open, but it was not Lucie behind the door.

The woman who looked down at Haley seemed to be an older, grouchier Lucie - if Lucie bothered to have immaculately groomed hair and wore a suit. She held her shoulders back with a dignity that made Haley swallow in fear.

“Good morning,” the woman said in a clipped tone. “When you find my daughter, tell her to come home. Hiding like she insists on doing is childish and unbecoming.”

Haley’s eyes darted away from the terrifying woman, meeting the gaze of Shane, who perched on the couch, spine straighter than Haley had ever seen it. He mouthed ‘help me’ at her, then pretended to be deeply interested in something on the arm of the couch as Lucie’s mother turned back to him. She didn’t speak again, merely shut the door with a light push of her hand. 

* * *

Lucie was sat inside Pam’s trailer. Haley had noticed the silhouette of a second head as she headed towards the mines, expecting Lucie to have hidden down there. She knew for a fact that Penny was tucked away in the library, and so she made a hesitant guess and knocked on the metal door. She was left hanging for all of two minutes, but it could have been two lifetimes for all Haley knew. Pam was a very brusque woman, and Haley had barely ever spoken to her because of this. It was the politest way Haley could phrase how she felt - the truth was more that Pam terrified Haley.

“What do you want?” Pam grunted as she opened the door, a beer in her free hand. Haley forced herself to smile warmly.

“Is Lucie in here?” Haley asked lightly. Lucie’s head appeared from behind the door, a mess of brown curls tumbling on to her shoulder, a hair tie visible halfway down the mess of hair. Pam glanced over her shoulder and shook her head.

“Yoba, just invite the whole town over, why don’t you?” Pam muttered. “I let you in because you brought pale ale.” Despite her grumbling, Pam strode away from the door, leaving it open, and sat down on her bed at the far end of the trailer. Haley took that as an invitation and slipped inside, shutting the door quickly and quietly behind her.

“So,” she said, folding her legs underneath her as she sat at the table. “Your mother is terrifying.”

Lucie laughed, but it was cold and short. Not her usual bubbling of joy in the slightest. She took a drink from the bottle in her hand. Haley decided against commenting on the fact that Lucie was drinking wine from the bottle.

“My mother is quite literally the devil,” Lucie said darkly. “I climbed out of the bathroom window to get away from her. I’m fully expecting Shane to be dead when I get back, just because my mother is feeling spiteful.” Haley took the bottle out of Lucie’s hands, feeling a little like a mother taking away a bottle of milk from a baby. Lucie’s face seemed to suggest that she felt like the baby having its comfort bottle stolen, crumpling slightly as her fingers loosened from around the neck of the bottle. “Did she tell you to come find me?” Lucie asked, slumping against the back of her chair.

“Yep,” Haley said with forced cheerfulness. “But I’m not going to - not until we’ve done the thing I want us to do.” Lucie perked up a little at that, looking at Haley with hope in her eyes, and a glance towards the bottle.

“Please tell me it will take all day.”

“I’m going to butcher some of my clothes in order to make you a custom fit dress for Marnie and Lewis’ wedding,” Haley said, patting Lucie’s hand sympathetically. As she patted her with one hand, Haley also pushed the bottle into the nearest cupboard. “It will take hours and then we’ll need to think about what _I_ will have to wear, and you know how indecisive I am.”

“I love you,” Lucie said, utterly genuinely. “Like seriously, please dump Alex and marry me now, because I have never loved anyone more than you in this moment.”

“You are ridiculous, come on,” Haley laughed, standing up. She immediately regretted having sat on her foot, as the pins and needles attacked in full force and she had to sit back down again. “Okay, come on in like…five minutes.”

Lucie laughed at her, poking at her ankle and sending the pins and needles into waves of agony. Haley swatted her hand away, which only made Lucie laugh harder.

“Would you two stop?” Pam muttered. Lucie looked up at her and smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry, Pam,” she offered with a shrug. “And thanks for letting me hide and day-drink with you!”

* * *

Haley was true to her promise. The tinkering with dresses did take several hours, and mostly involved Lucie standing still whilst Haley pinned things in place. It was surprisingly difficult - or perhaps not all that surprising, given that Lucie had downed at least one and a half bottles of wine whilst standing there, and swayed like a willow in a summer’s breeze.

“Lucie!” Haley snapped as Lucie swayed deliberately, sending the hem of the skirt in a wide swirl. “If you send pins flying, I am making you pick them up.”

Lucie merely giggled back at her, picking up a handful of fabric and letting it fall back down to the ground. Haley rolled her eyes at her friend, and picked up a needle.

“Pointy!” Lucie laughed, pointing at Haley.

“By Yoba, you are annoying when you’re drunk,” Haley muttered. “Look, I am going to sew this bit here by hand - and you do not care. Just…just stay still for five minutes?” Lucie stopped her swaying and brought both hands to clutch the bottle of wine in front of her chest, her body rigid as she forced herself to be stationary.

“You know,” Lucie said, less giggly now. “You should do this. Like as a job. Be people’s dressy-person.”

“I don’t think that’s a job,” Haley replied, focusing on the hem in front of her. “But I was thinking I might start a business up-cycling clothes or whatever.” She glanced up at Lucie who nodded very vigorously, encouraging her to continue. Haley bit her lip for a second - the idea had only come to her an hour before, and she hadn’t really thought any of it through, but who better to bounce her ideas off than a drunk Lucie? “I mean - I keep seeing all these things about fast-fashion, and the unsustainable nature of the fashion industry, right? And secondhand clothes shops are alright, but what if you want something that keeps up with recent trends but not new? I don’t know, I just thought that maybe if I did something where people bring me their old clothes, I could pay them the secondhand value, and then revamp them somehow - like what I’m doing with this dress. I mean, even if the item is unsalvageable, it’s still fabric, and…” Haley trailed off.

“That sounds really cool, Haley!” Lucie grinned at her. Haley smiled at the hem she was sewing, then met Lucie’s grin with her own.

“You know what? It really does sound cool, doesn’t it?” She admitted. Haley paused, then frowned at Lucie. “Will you model some of my clothes if I do this?”

“Of course!”

“And buy some of them? Your wardrobe is a disaster.”

“It is practical!” Lucie objected, throwing her hands in the air, utterly forgetting about the bottle in her hand. The wine sloshed in its container, but somehow did not spill. Lucie winced, then grinned at Haley. “Oops?”

Haley stood, and took the bottle from Lucie’s hand.

“Yeah, you’re going to buy so much from me, and I am not giving you a choice in this,” Haley said dryly. “Starting with this dress.”

Lucie grinned, then her smile faltered.

“You’re not done, are you?” She said, frowning slightly. Haley nodded. There was nothing more she could do with Lucie lurking in the background. “Shit. Do I have to go home?”

“Go on - go rescue your boyfriend from the devil.”

“Ugh, fine.”


	11. Arson Is The Only Option

Lucie had taken the bottle with her, and she drank deeply from it as she meandered back to her little farm house. That building had been her solace - a little escape from the world she’d left behind, where she could be secure in her simple life with Shane and her friends. Then her mother had to be herself. She’d barely entered into the house before her criticisms started, and Lucie refused to deal with it.

Perhaps fleeing out of a window was a tad melodramatic, but she didn’t care. It was her house - hers, not her mothers - and she would be childish and over the top if she wanted to be. She didn’t need to put up with comments on her weight, on her interior decoration, on anything and everything. She didn’t have to - she was going to go tell her mother to behave like a sane guest or get the hell out of her house.

Lucie faltered at the gates to her farm. It was all well and good to think she was going to be righteous and dramatic, but the house was right there and suddenly she felt like a scared seven year old once more, lurking at the top of the stairs hearing her parents fight below. She leant against the fence, clutching the wine bottle by the neck. She drank.

Then she steeled herself and strode into her own house.

* * *

“Evening all,” she said, saluting them with the wine bottle. Lucie ignored the look that Shane gave her as she threw herself on to the couch next to him, draining the rest of the bottle before she spoke again. She smiled venomously at her mother. “Oh, don’t worry, maman - I know precisely how reckless and irresponsible I am being. I also know how much of a colossal disappointment I am to you, so you can save your breath.”

Lucie kicked her feet up on to the coffee table, her boots dropping small flecks of mud on to the wood. Crossing her ankles, she leant heavily into Shane, the bottle dangling from the hand that she threw over his shoulders. Her slumped posture was at remarkable odds with the disapproving woman who snatched the bottle from Lucie’s hand, her heels clacking on the floor as she strode over to the counter and placed it down with a frightening calm.

“You know how I feel about drinking from the bottle, Lucienne,” Lucie’s mother said slowly. “And you know how I feel about you using that ridiculous term.”

“Colossal disappointment?” Lucie supplied. The woman arched an eyebrow at her.

“I am not your ‘maman’,” she said coldly. Lucie snorted and muttered something under her breath, her face crumpling like that of a stroppy teenager. “Do not mumble. And sit up straight - your posture is terrible, I knew I should never have left you to your father’s bad habits.”

Lucie bit her tongue - literally bit her tongue in an attempt to hold back the angry retort that rose in her. She slumped a little lower in her chair and turned to Shane.

“Want to eat out tonight?” She asked, her eyes darting towards her mother. Then her brow furrowed. “What’s she done with, you know, the person we actually invited here?”

“Cassandra went to go over some details with Lewis and Marnie,” Shane answered. “She left two hours ago.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Lucie squeezed his shoulder lightly. “The bitch wasn’t too rude, was she?”

Lucie’s mother tapped a heeled foot on the ground impatiently. “I can hear you, Lucienne.” The shake of the head that followed her snarky statement earned the woman a hateful glower from Lucie, who turned back to Shane as though her mother hadn’t spoken.

He shrugged at her.

“We didn’t really speak,” he said, ignoring the woman standing in his kitchen. Lucie smiled and kissed his cheek, a little more forcefully than she intended. She got to her feet, the boots dropping yet more mud on to the floor, causing Shane to groan slightly behind her.

She slowly moved towards her mother, holding her gaze firmly.

“Us bickering constantly is going to make both our lives hell, agreed?” Lucie said slowly, pausing long enough for her mother to sigh and open her mouth. Lucie lifted an eyebrow at her and remembered her final word. When her mother rolled her eyes, but nodded grudgingly, Lucie smiled coldly and continued: “So, I suggest we leave each other alone for the next two days. You will not pass any judgements, of any kind, on anything in this house. You will not criticise me or Shane for anything that we do. In exchange, I will not belittle your relationship, I will not bring up how you treated me and Dad and I will let you stay in my house. I’ll even feed you if you like.”

“So, I am not allowed to speak then?” Her mother said, raising an eyebrow at her daughter. Lucie shook her head, disbelievingly, and walked back to Shane.

“If you can’t think of anything to say that isn’t a judgement, then that isn’t my fault,” Lucie said lightly. She turned her back fully on her mother and smiled at Shane, a shaky smile that suggested she was three words away from falling apart. “Fancy eating out tonight?”

* * *

Shane waited until the door closed behind him, shutting Lucie’s mother away from the young couple, before he turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

“How much have you drunk today, Lucie?” He asked, holding her by the elbow as she slipped more than stepped down off the porch. She snorted in defiance and wafted away his concern.

“Shush.” She pressed a hand over his mouth, and then giggled at the unimpressed look he gave her. When Shane peeled her hand away, she sighed dramatically and added. “How are you fine after spending all day with her?”

Shane shook his head lightly, and started to walk, hand in hand with Lucie. She pulled her hand free, then linked it through his arm, freeing up his hand to be shoved into the pocket of his hoody. Lucie leant heavily on his arm, her body pressing into his shoulder as she sighed wearily.

“I don’t care what your mother thinks of me,” Shane said slowly as they wandered along the grassy lane. “She’s rude and obnoxious, so I just didn’t interact with her.”

“God I wish Lewis and Marnie were getting married tonight,” Lucie muttered. “Then we could be free of her tonight.”

Shane placed his hand on Lucie’s arm, squeezing her lightly.

“Tomorrow isn’t that far away. She’ll only be with us for one night,” he said reassuringly. Then he paused, frowning into the dusk that settled over the town. “If they try to stay more than one night I will burn that house to the ground, I hope you know that.”

Lucie laughed loudly, placing her hand over his and squeezing back.

“Or we could just go stay at Marnie’s for a night?”

“No, arson is the only option,” Shane responded with a grin. “We can blame it on Diogenes and then get Robin to build us a bigger house with the insurance money.”


End file.
